Paul Litwin's Blog : AJAX

Session Slides and Samples from Microsoft ASP.NET Connections

plitwin — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 01:58:00 GMT

Just posted my session materials from Microsoft ASP.NET Connections, part of DevConnections Las Vegas, Nov 10-13, 2008.

The updated materials, which can be found here, include both slides and samples for the following talks from the show:

Data Control Tips and Tricks
We’ve all seen the basic drag-and-drop demos of the Data Controls, but you don’t build solutions using demo code. In this session, we’ll dig deeper into the Data Controls and the Data Source Controls. During this session, you’ll learn such things as how to add drop-down and check-box fields, how to set a default field value for inserts, how to update database fields that don’t appear in a FormView or DetailsView, how to create GridView controls that can be bound to different datasets on the fly, how to create cascading drop-down controls inside of a Form View, and how to deal with Identity columns during inserts. We’ll also take a look at using the new ListView and DataPager controls added to ASP.NET 3.5.

Programming SQL Server Reporting Services
In this session, you’ll learn how to programmatically manipulate SQL Server 2005 and SQL Server 2008 Reporting Services (SSRS) and integrate SSRS into your ASP.NET applications by employing URL Access, Report Viewer controls, and the Reporting Services Web Services. A major issue with SSRS is that you can normally only display reports using Internet Explorer, but in this session you’ll discover how to integrate SSRS into your applications using any modern browser, including Firefox, Netscape, and Safari. Finally, you’ll learn how to extend reporting services by calling custom .NET assemblies from your SSRS reports.

Ajaxifying Existing Apps with the ASP.NET AJAX Extensions
One problem with ASP.NET pages is that they normally work in an "all or nothing" page postback mode. That is, when you need something on a page to happen, you must trigger a postback. This causes your code to run on the server, with the net effect being that the page shown in the browser is completely replaced with a new page, even if only a small portion of the page actually changes. In this session, Paul will introduce you to the Microsoft ASP.NET AJAX Extensions, which allow you to trigger asynchronous partial page-postbacks, reducing the amount of data sent back and forth between the browser and the server, and improving the overall user experience. You will learn how to use the UpdatePanel and several other ASP.NET AJAX controls to AJAX-ify your existing ASP.NET applications. You’ll also learn about using the controls and extenders from the Microsoft ASP.NET AJAX Control Toolkit to ease your move into the AJAX world.

Seattle Code Camp 2008

plitwin — Fri, 25 Jan 2008 01:17:00 GMT

I am presenting two sessions at the Seattle Code Camp, Saturday Jan 26 - Sunday Jan 27,

Both of my talks are on Sunday. An ASP.NET Ajax talk at 9:15 AM and a Programming Reporting Services talk at 3 PM.

Everything can be found on the Code Camp site, including the schedule and a description of the sessions.

The conference is at DigiPen in Redmond and is entirely free but you need to register.

Thank you Chris Kinsman and the other volunteers and sponsors for putting on this amazing developer-fueled event!

Paul

Posted Updated Samples from My Microsoft ASP.NET Connections Las Vegas Sessions

plitwin — Fri, 16 Nov 2007 08:41:00 GMT

I have posted the updated samples from my three sessions at last week's extremely successful Microsoft ASP.NET Connections show in Las Vegas (part of DevConnections which had more than 5100 attendees!)

The sessions:

Pre-conference workshop (co-presented with Stephen Walther) on ASP.NET AJAX.
Data Controls Tips and Tricks
Programming SQL Server Reporting Services

You can find the samples (as well as other, older samples from prior talks) at my downloads page.

Lollygag Framework Goes Beta 1

plitwin — Wed, 22 Nov 2006 05:06:00 GMT

Stephen Walther (author of a number of books including the very popular ASP.NET Unleashed and a personal friend) has just released Beta 1 of this AJAX framework: Lollygag. I saw this framework back at Microsoft ASP.NET Connections and I have to say it is way cool. This is a .NET friendly AJAX framework that just might do a better job at AJAX than Microsoft's AJAX framework, which many .NET developers are quite disappointed with. Lollygag is pretty simple to use, supports IntelliSense in Visual Studio (and Visual Web Developer), and looks very promising.

I just downloaded it from the LollygagFramework site. Plan to play with it soon but just so you know I am pretty anti-AJAX for the most part. Oh, and I tried to talk Stephen out of the name over a few beers back in August but he wouldn't listen. The funny thing is, however, that the name is growing on me and I sort of like it now. Oh well.

If you do AJAX or are looking to get started with it, you should check it out.

Paul